Celebrating the Memory of John Lennon, the Day He Met Paul McCartney and the Birth of The Beatles

As December 8 rolls around each year, it brings with it a sense of melancholy and remembrance of things lost, in particular John Lennon, who was executed in front of his New York home 39 years ago. At the time, there was little solace to be gained in the aftermath of that news and it remains so today, though the undeniable escape from the pain both then and now — ironically enough — was the music that John created as part of The Beatles with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

And rather than get mired in the sadness, one would rather go in the opposite direction and celebrate John’s memory, in this case by looking back at the day he met Paul and, despite the fact they could never have suspected it, was put on the road to quite literally change the world. That being said, the Earth didn’t shake, the clouds didn’t part and a choir or angels didn’t sing on July 6, 1957.

“Actually, it was a rather unremarkable event,” muses Tony Bramwell, lifelong friend of The Beatles and someone who worked with them throughout their career and beyond, in an exclusive interview with Closer. “You really didn’t say, ‘Wow! I was there!’ The Quarry Men were playing, and not very well, and it was the day Paul said ‘Hello.’ It actually wasn’t exciting at all.”

Julia Baird, John’s half-sister (same mother, different father), reflects, “In Liverpool, and I’m sure it was the same in the States at that time, you wouldn’t say to any of your friends who had a brother, ‘Is your brother in a group?’ You’d say, ‘Is your brother the singer, the drummer, the guitarist or what?’ Because everyone was in a group. As I write in my book [Imagine This], if you took an aerial view, there were all these groups playing on porches and in kitchens and garden sheds, and all the roofs would be jangling about. This was all the groups practicing. The only difference with John’s group was that they succeeded.”

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